If Not for You
by Aina Song
Summary: "Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements together... One is never found without the other." - Thomas Kinkade
1. Prologue -- Aggrieved Sympathy

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Prologue - Aggrieved Sympathy**

Botan invited herself unannounced into Koenma's office, her quick stride alerting the demigod straightaway that something was up. The ogre Jorge followed her, rambling an incoherent apology, but Koenma impatiently waved him out of his office. Botan strode straight up to his desk and then stood there with her hands on her hips.

Looked like he'd been found out again, he mused as he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning. Clearing his throat, he politely asked, "How might I help you, Botan?"

"You could start by explaining yourself," she fumed.

"Could you elaborate?"

Her pretty violet eyes narrowed dangerously, and she slapped both her hands upon the surface of his desk. "You know very well what I'm talking about! How dare you authorize something like this!"

"Because only I have the authority to do so?" Koenma wondered innocently.

"Oh!" She huffed. Fisting one of her hands, she lightly thumped it against the desktop. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't hand in my resignation for this."

"Because you proved a valuable assistant last time, thereby electing yourself a worthy candidate this time around. Because you're loyal to the project as a whole." Then he let a small smile break through, adding, "And because you love me."

A brief moment passed in silence, but then her temper melted almost instantly. "Oh, I hate it when you use that card against me…"

He gave her a truer smile this time, knowing that he had avoided the worst of her temper. "Sure you do. Now tell me. Am I really in the doghouse this time, or were you simply looking for a way to vent your concern?"

"A little of both, I suppose," she sighed, massaging the fingers of one hand across her brow. "I'm not as mad as I ought to be, and believe me I should be stringing you up by your unmentionables right now."

Koenma blanched. Botan was a woman who tolerated profane language but never spoke it herself. To know that he had pushed her so close to it with this…

"But," she added with a hesitant smile. "I have to admit that most of it was concern. I like this boy, Koenma; he reminds me so much of Yusuke. And I don't want to see him dragged through so much pain and torment the way Yusuke was."

"I apologized for that," Koenma calmly insisted. "Both to him and to you." Standing, he stepped around his desk and gently grabbed her arms above the elbows. "Botan, listen to me. I know you don't want to hear this. But this boy's already suffered greatly, without interference from the goings-on of spirit realm. He'd unwittingly received a crash course in the kind of training needed for this." He paused, but knew he might as well tell the rest of it. "And it was the only way to protect him."

She bit at her lower lip, ducking her chin low. "I know. He told me. But I still don't-"

"Excuse me," Jorge interrupted, peeking in through the office door. "Um, he's ready, sir."

"Very well," he nodded, putting a respectable distance between himself and the woman who shared his secret love. "Let him in."

The ogre ducked his head out again. Within seconds, the door opened wider to let in a quiet dark-haired youth who stepped wordlessly into the office with humble confidence. He wore only a loose pair of faded jeans, his feet were bare, and his right hand was pressed flat against his tightly bandaged torso.

"Are you all right?" Koenma asked, his brow creasing worriedly.

The boy shifted to the side of the door and leaned his back to the wall with a heavy sigh. Botan quickly crossed to his side. She lifted her fingers under his bangs, lightly sweeping them back from a forehead that had gone clammy with unshed perspiration. "Breathe," she whispered. "You can fight it…"

Icy blue eyes blinked open, and he tilted his head back against the wall to look at her. His mouth tugged in a weary smile. "I'm fine…"

Koenma reigned in his own concern, grabbing a file folder and coming to stand before the boy. "Have you severed all ties to your former life?"

"Yes, sir," the dark-haired youth sighed, nodding. "They'd just gotten done reporting my death on the news. And those who know better expect never to see me again."

Botan stared, "You faked your own death?"

"It was the only way," he answered as softly as before. He glimpsed her sorrowful expression and offered her another small smile. "It's fine. Really. I was going to have to do it eventually, anyway."

"The terms of your contract to me specifically forbid revealing yourself to your predecessor," Koenma gently reminded. "I would like to have introduced you to Yusuke someday, but as your time in his world will be limited I'd prefer avoiding all that red tape."

"I understand," the boy somberly agreed.

Koenma lifted the file folder in his hand, offering it forth. "The demon wards you'll need. There are also papers to confirm your temporary citizenship in Japan, transcripts transferring you to a new school from one that had very recently burned down in another part of the country-"

"What," the dark-haired youth interrupted, his icy blue eyes boldly demanding an explanation from the young lord.

"Nothing traumatizing," he assured. "There was a gas leak, and an overnight janitor thoughtlessly lit a cigarette. He survived, though he'll be hospitalized for a while. I won't deny that the incident was actually very convenient, however, as no one will immediately think to look into its history records for your presence there. So long as you don't draw too much attention to yourself."

The boy caught the irony in that last statement, a weak laugh shaking his frame. "I'll do my best, sir."

"Botan will provide you with assistance when needed. Any questions?"

"No, sir."

Botan touched a hand to the boy's arm. "Are you sure you want to do this? I don't like to think of such a nice boy putting himself at risk like this…"

"You're a little late for that," he muttered, his hand unconsciously rubbing at his chest. But then his mouth tugged in one more half-hearted smile, "Anyway, if I _wasn't_ at risk so often, I think I'd die of boredom."

"Way to stay optimistic," Koenma empathized. "The good news is that things have calmed down quite a bit for now. You'll have at least a few months to get settled in at your new home and at your new school. Better to establish yourself amongst your classmates and your neighbors."

"Yes, sir."

"I don't know whether to congratulate you," Botan shook her head, "or to apologize upfront for anything we might end up putting you through."

"If you want," the white-haired youth generously offered, "I'll accept both."

She threw herself at him with a soft cry, taking the boy into her tight embrace. She buried her face into his shoulder, her tears wetting the cove of his neck, and he sighed, folding his free arm around her back. Koenma gently placed a hand to the boy's other shoulder, and his amber eyes held nothing but aggrieved sympathy.


	2. Chapter 1 -- The Truth

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Chapter One - The Truth**

_(One month later…)_

The middle-aged school councilor shuffled through a handful of papers, but then set them down upon his desk to give the student his attention. "I suppose you're wondering why I've called you into my office, young man."

"The question has crossed my mind, sir."

"Well," Councilor Ukai smiled, "rest assured that I haven't received any complaints from your professors. In fact, a couple of them requested that I ask a favor of you on behalf of one of your classmates."

As though on cue, a knock sounded upon his door.

"That should be him, now. Come in," he called.

The door swung open. Ukai stood and gave his new guest a kind smile, "Welcome. I'm sure you'll recognize each other, but allow me just a moment to get the formalities out of the way. Suuichi Minamino, this is Daniel Fenton."

Kurama stood, turning around. It was the new student, the American-descent that had transferred from across the country some weeks before due to an unfortunate fire. The boy did not appear very exceptional - average height, slight build, attractively messy black hair and ice-blue eyes - but Kurama was a demon with a demon's senses. He had already perceived an unusual aura hovering around this new classmate; standing together in so small an office only strengthened his suspicions that there was something very large and powerful hidden beneath the boy's unremarkable façade.

They both sat down before the councilor's desk, and Ukai reclaimed his own seat as well. He turned to the new student; "Have your professors explained why you're here?"

"Yes," the boy softly spoke. "My last test scores upset my overall average. They suggested a tutor."

Ukai nodded, motioning to the redhead sitting to the boy's left. "Suuichi here is our top student. He has already accumulated all the credits needed to graduate, and attends his classes now solely to fulfill attendance requirements. If he's willing, we could rearrange his schedule to allow him to tutor you during class until you're both confident you can keep up on your own."

"Sir," Fenton hesitated, and Kurama glanced at him to find that the boy looked suddenly uncomfortable. "I-I didn't think you meant… Isn't there someone else…?"

"What?" Ukai arched his brow, "But this is a fine opportunity for you, and-"

Kurama quickly spoke up, "Perhaps it would be better that I visit him a couple times after school hours until he feels comfortable with the idea of trusting his studies to me."

The boy swiftly turned his head to stare at him - Kurama deemed it a trick of the light that Fenton's blue eyes briefly flashed bright green in color.

Councilor Ukai looked from one to the other, apparently considering, but then he gave another smile. "That sounds fair enough, I suppose. A no-pressure option. I'll give the both of you two weeks to decide."

Kurama stood and followed Fenton out of the office. Once they had stepped a handful of paces from the councilor's door, however, Fenton suddenly spun around. His eyes were intense, and Kurama found himself wondering whether he hadn't imagined that earlier flash of green in their icy blue color.

"In two weeks, I'm going to tell him it didn't work out," he abruptly announced. "Don't bother coming to visit me."

Kurama blinked, "But why?"

Fenton shook his head and calmly replied, "I've got nothing against you. But I can't let you get involved." He turned and started walking, but not without adding over his shoulder, "Stay away from me if you know what's good for you."

Kurama watched him follow along the corridor toward his next class, the entire conversation already making its third round inside the redhead's skull. He had a dark suspicion that the young human had not been referring to Kurama's academic successes. If he had, then Fenton would have jumped at the chance to receive Suuichi Minamino's tutelage. But Kurama recalled that in the councilor's office, the very suggestion had seemed to make Fenton extremely uncomfortable. Above all was the fact that Daniel Fenton was a human concealing tremendous amounts of energy.

But there were not yet enough clues to piece together the puzzle.

Turning on his heel, Kurama retraced his steps and reentered the councilor's office. Ukai looked up with a questioning smile. "Excuse me," Kurama politely requested. "But I seem to have forgotten to acquire Daniel's home address…"

~o~

The boy lived in a small one-floor house on the outskirts of the city. A convenient enough location, out of the way of most of the city's traffic. It was late at night when Kurama paid the house a visit, but his demon's eyes did not miss that there was no car in the driveway. Did the boy's parents work the night shift, leaving him home alone during the most uncertain hours of the day? Or had they simply gone out?

Leaping soundlessly down from the branches of a tree, Kurama crept swiftly forth and reached his hand toward the nearest window. But then he hissed and drew his hand back. A strange and foreign energy had repelled his touch. Frowning, he quietly rounded the house and approached a window closer to the back door. But that same energy crackled and forced him back again. And when Kurama dared close enough to look, he glimpsed a small strip of wax paper taped to the other side of the glass.

_A ward?_ Kurama narrowed his dark green eyes, instantly curious. How did Daniel Fenton happen across demon wards? More to the point, why would he feel such desperate need to attach them to every conceivable entrance into his home?

For the next few nights, the demon fox lurked in the shadows, observing the house and noting that the car he had once deemed missing had never returned. Could the boy be living alone, then? It was not a thing unheard of, for in Japan high school could be bypassed altogether for an early job. But Daniel Fenton _was_ going to high school. And Kurama had already memorized the boy's comings and goings - aside from school and the occasional trip for groceries and other such necessities, he never left his home.

Kurama settled more comfortably upon his tree branch, sparing a moment to rearrange the puzzle pieces he had thus far gathered. An American-descent transfer student… Obviously human, but with a hidden power that hinted of more… Living alone, in a house protected by demon wards… Apparently financially secure, which would explain the lack of a job…

Yet no matter how Kurama turned each and every clue in his head, he simply could not wrap his mind around the puzzle as a whole. There seemed to be more, a final piece he had yet to discover.

~o~

"What's my role in this, again?" Yusuke asked, strolling beside Kurama along the sidewalk. "I don't go to school anymore, and even if I did, there's no way my shitty credentials could get me in the same school as the two of you. So it's not like I'll have anything in common to talk about."

"His home is warded against unwelcome demons," Kurama reminded. "As a half-breed, you may approach his door without trouble."

"What about you? I mean, you were reborn in a human's body, right?"

"Yes," the redhead patiently agreed. "But my human energy has dwindled a bit since Youko was resurrected in me."

"Ouch. But you still haven't convinced me why _I_ should pay this guy a visit."

"You aren't remotely curious?"

"Not a bit." The dark youth caught his friend's look, and he smirked, "I'm _retired_, Kurama. I haven't had to be _curious_ for over a year."

The redhead nodded, acceding Yusuke's point. "But I cannot so easily dismiss my concern. The last time I sensed such energy, _you_ had just reawakened as a demon. His energy is so like yours, and yet so _un_like yours at the same time."

"Think he's a physic?" Yusuke grudgingly wondered. "You know, like Kido or Sniper?"

"It's a definite possibility, I suppose."

"Shit."

"What is it?"

"I don't want to be dragged into something like that again," the dark youth moaned. "I'm _retired_! Why can't the pacifier junkie find some new lackey for this kind of thing?"

Kurama's mouth tugged in small amusement. "As neither of us has had contact with Lord Koenma for some time, we cannot be so certain that he hasn't. Perhaps we shall meet him someday. But for now," he added as they approached the house he had been observing for the past four days. "Please assist an old fox in indulging his curiosity."

"Old?" Yusuke scoffed as he knocked upon the front door.

Kurama smiled. "Only if you count by years, experience, maturity, wisdom…"

"What does that leave _me_ - good looks?"

"Well, I was trying to be modest…"

"Ha, ha."

The door opened, swinging inward, and Daniel Fenton looked upon his guests with immediate alarm and suspicion. But the next instant, it was gone, and the boy's ice-blue eyes flicked from Kurama to Yusuke and back again with cold detachment. "What do you want?"

Yusuke suddenly found himself very interested. The aura of the boy's strange energy was fluctuating uncertainly, as though it was constantly under strain, and there was a vivid red cut following the boy's hairline along the right side of his brow toward his ear. It seemed that Kurama was not the only dangerous creature to have been intrigued by the mystery of this boy…

"Forgive us," Kurama politely greeted. "But I could not help but wonder why you still refuse to accept the proposal of my tutelage."

Those ice-blue eyes narrowed, "That's it? I told you, I'm fine without your help."

The boy made as though to close the door again, but Yusuke quickly grabbed it and pushed it wider. "Maybe you don't need his help with your homework," he slowly suggested, his voice a low hiss. "But that cut of yours is still bleeding. If nothing else, Suuichi knows his way around a first aid kit."

Fenton gave a muttered curse, swiping the heel of his hand across the scar on his brow, his jaw clenching at the sight of the blood that came away with his touch.

"Please," Kurama softly added. "We don't mean to intrude. But you _are_ hurt…"

Fisting his hand, Fenton looked up again, and Yusuke wondered that there seemed to be a flash of green in those determined blue eyes. "I asked you to stay away from me. I don't like that you looked up my address behind my back." He paused, "But while you're here…"

Kurama blinked, "Yes?"

"I'd appreciate it if you could refrain from inviting any more of your friends to my door. Otherwise, I won't be held responsible if they suddenly decide to stop to talking to you." And he slammed the door shut before Yusuke could think to block it again.

The two demons stared at that door for several seconds, before Kurama finally commented, "That's odd…"

"Which part?"

"His warning," Kurama clarified, ignoring Yusuke's dry sarcasm. "As though there was a specific being of my acquaintance that he did not wish discovering his presence…"

Yusuke frowned, hurrying to catch up with Kurama as the demon fox started again along the sidewalk. "The hell does _that_ mean?"

~o~

When he saw that they had turned a corner, Danny turned away from his window and leaned his back against his front door. His hand lifted up to his chest, and he clenched his teeth with a silent grimace, his feet slipping out from under him so that he slid slowly to the floor.

Hesitant fingers brushed his cheek, and he opened his eyes to find Botan looking at him with much sadness and guilt in her pretty violet eyes. She brought her fingers away from his cheek, instead hovering her hand over the cut still bleeding beneath his hairline. He could almost sense her modest power at work, feel his wound very slowly closing itself.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"I was exhausting myself anyway," he sighed, closing his eyes again. "At least you distracted the thing enough that I was finally able to bring it down."

She did not answer for a long minute, choosing instead to focus on his already-disappearing wound. After it had gone completely, she unwrapped a square band-aid and stuck it to his forehead. Both Botan and Danny knew that such a measure would not have been necessary, if not for their unexpected guests. She sat back on her heels, her mouth pursing in a little pout as she studied the band-aid. "It's too small…"

"I'll just say the bleeding made it look bigger than it was."

Botan shook her head, "Kurama will never buy that."

"I know." Danny gave another sigh, gazing absently toward the demon ward hanging on the opposite wall. "But I'm not allowed to let them know the truth."


	3. Chapter 2 -- Danny, Danny

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Chapter Two - Danny, Danny…**

Kurama continued to watch Fenton's home. Though he had not believed the boy's excuse for the band-aid, he had not said anything in front of their professors and classmates. Yet it had touched his already-brimming curiosity. And now, reclining again on his branch in the dark of the night, he wondered. _How_ had Fenton injured himself - more to the point, how had he escaped Kurama's notice long enough to do it?

"Why can't I see into this house?"

Blinking, Kurama tilted his head back and gazed upward. His mouth tugged in a small smile. "I didn't expect you to return to the human world so suddenly, Hiei. How's Mukuro?"

"Dead," the fire demon answered shortly, his garnet red eyes fixed on the house before them. "Betrayed by those she trusted most."

"I'm sorry," he politely murmured.

An unusually cold light flashed in Hiei's eyes, despite the fire in his blood. "She was avenged. Answer my question."

Kurama settled more comfortably against the strength of the tree, folding his arms behind his head. "You can't see into the house because it is strongly warded against demons. Even my most subtle plants cannot break through such a barrier."

The branch only barely trembled when Hiei dropped upon it. His stance seemed almost relaxed, his hands having disappeared into the pockets of his dark coat. It was his erect posture and eerie stillness that alerted Kurama to the possibility that his old comrade was troubled by something other than Mukuro's death.

_Good luck figurin' __**that**__ one out_, he could almost hear Yusuke challenge, and Kurama quickly reigned in a bemused smile.

"What are the wards meant to protect?" Hiei spoke again after a brief silence.

Kurama gave an absent shrug, turning his gaze upon the house as well. "There is a new student in my school. A human, but one with mind-baffling spirit energy. I have observed him for some time, both at school and here at his home, only to learn very little. I'm quite intrigued."

"Does that fool Koenma know? Is Yusuke keeping an eye on this human as well?"

"Yusuke is retired, as he so happily reminds me at every opportunity. As for Lord Koenma, I can't tell you whether he is aware of the boy, as I truly don't know."

"You're not being coerced into this? Why not simply turn your back and walk away?"

"I'm a fox, Hiei," Kurama answered, this time allowing a slow smile to break through. "And one who has never quite conquered his addiction for uncovering heavily guarded secrets."

The fire demon rolled his eyes, and then was gone in a blur of movement. The redhead chuckled softly to himself and went back to observing the house.

~o~

Inside, Danny let out a sharp cry. Folding his arms around his middle, he stumbled back against a wall, upsetting an end table and sending a lamp to crash on the floor. Fire exploded within his chest, scalding tendrils of pain stretching outward toward his sides and down toward his stomach. He doubled over even as his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor.

"Danny!"

Feminine hands cupped the sides of his face, hands which felt refreshingly cool against the fever flushing his cheeks. His head was lifted up, and his eyes sought Botan's suddenly blurred silhouette. "Take off your shirt," she pleaded, her fingers already tugging at its hem. He was only able to help her by painstakingly lifting his arms forward as she yanked it over his head.

Tossing the shirt aside, she took him by the shoulders and braced him up against the wall. The new position only urged the pain to blossom again within his chest and stomach, and he whimpered piteously. Botan paused a moment, sweeping his bangs from his eyes, and her own eyes held so much concern. Then she was moving her hands again, her fingers lightly brushing along the bandages covering his torso, and she pressed her palms flat over his heart. "Breathe with me," she whispered, even as a soft white light illuminated beneath her hands.

Danny blinked his eyes open again, peering through his blurred vision to watch for her cue. He inhaled when she did, held his breath for three excruciating seconds, and then followed as she slowly sighed her breath out. Inhale, hold it, exhale. On the third inhale, he felt it - her power working to counter his pain.

Botan gave a short cry, jerking her hands away. Replacing them with his own, Danny carefully rubbed at the center of his chest, relieved to find that the pain had been numbed and was collecting itself once more around his heart where it belonged. He lifted his ice-blue eyes, his blurred vision clearing very swiftly, and he knew some guilt to find that Botan's palms were raw and pink from her efforts.

"I'm sorry…"

She looked sharply up, her eyes wide and disbelieving. "'Sorry'? How can you say that?" She dropped her hands to her lap and shook her head. "You're at so much risk already, and working for the spirit realm only endangers you further, and you feel you have to apologize to _me_?"

"Botan, I know you only have so much energy to spare. You shouldn't have to waste so much of it on me."

"I'm not wasting it," she quietly insisted. Lifting one hand - her palm already healing as though nothing had happened - she lightly touched his arm. "And _I'm_ sorry that I'm not the one you'd rather have doing this for you."

Danny let out a quiet sigh but could not argue.

~o~

Kurama was finally troubled.

Fenton had not come to classes for several days. When Councilor Ukai called Suuichi Minamino into his office, the redhead could only dutifully relay that the boy was not remotely interested in his tutelage, and he left it at that. Yet even Fenton's sparse trips to the grocery store had suddenly ceased. And, still keeping his vigil during the night, Kurama knew that the boy never ventured out of his home.

The last was not so alarming, as the demon fox had yet to see any activity outside the house during nocturnal hours, anyway. But the sudden halt of activities in the first two categories were slowly putting Kurama on edge.

"Why are you losing sleep over this," Yusuke Urameshi demanded one afternoon. "He made it clear from day one that he wants nothing to do with us."

"I am not losing sleep," Kurama patiently contradicted, resting his elbow on the arm of the chair and passing his fingers across his forehead. "That tree can be quite accommodating, if you know how to convince it to cradle you in just the right way."

"Oh, I didn't hear that," Yusuke quickly denied, leaping over the back of his couch and plopping down on its cushions. "I didn't just hear you say that, and I definitely did _not_ need that image!"

Dropping his hand, he gave the young Mazoku prince a wry smirk. The dark youth was quite adorable when caught with his guard down like that. _Pity his heart is still mending_, Kurama sighed to himself.

Yusuke had lost both his girlfriend and his best friend in the same hour, to the oldest excuse in the book. They had both found someone else - each other. Now Kurama, who for some time had had his eye on the deliciously dark half-breed, teetered precariously on the knife's edge of his desire while he waited for the young Mazoku to be ready to move on.

"Must you always assume my relationship with plants is some sort of perverse fetish?" He asked now, as much to distract himself as to subtly tease the boy.

"Must _you_ always feed me lines that give me no choice but to believe it?" Yusuke mocked in return.

"As I was saying," the redhead rolled his eyes. "Despite the tree's comfort-

"Ugh."

"-Despite that, even a former thief remembers to sleep lightly during a stakeout," Kurama finished, unfazed.

"I'm guessin' that means the kid never left his house."

Nodding, Kurama sat back in the recliner and tilted his head back against its pillow-like cushion. "At first, he was simply a mystery to be solved. A puzzle to piece together. A riddle without an answer. But now… He is an entity of unusual power in a human body, a reckless force enshrined by a fragile shell." A small frown set his mouth in a thin line, as he continued to muse aloud, "Unremarkable as he appears on the outside, Fenton seems to hold a raw and wild core within him limited only by his desire to keep it there. What if that changes? What if that fragile shell is beginning to crack?"

"_Fenton_, you say?"

Blinking, the demon fox lifted his head. Yusuke was staring now toward his open balcony door, and Kurama turned his head to find Hiei perfectly balanced upon the balcony railing.

The koorime's fiery red eyes were heated and intense, and locked on Kurama. He stood there upon that railing, frozen as a stone statue, and Kurama swiftly reviewed his own words, wondering what it was he had said to receive such a passionate reaction from his old friend.

"Yes," he cautiously confirmed. "Daniel Fenton."

"The human whose house my Jagan couldn't penetrate?"

Though he could not say why, Kurama found himself resisting an urge to flinch before the sharp tone cutting around that question. "Yes."

The redhead's eyes were just quick enough to catch the flicker of pain that only barely touched on Hiei's otherwise perfectly impassive expression. But then, in a blur of movement, the fire demon was gone.

"The hell?" Yusuke turned his stare upon Kurama. "Wanna explain to me what just happened?"

"I believe," he slowly responded, "that we are about to get our answers."

Dawning realization filled the half-breed's dark brown eyes. "Y-you don't think…?" When Kurama failed to argue, he asked instead, "Should we follow him?"

"…No."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"Much as I might wish otherwise," Kurama sighed, turning his gaze again toward the balcony, "I don't believe our presence at the moment would be welcome."

~o~

Blinking his eyes open, Danny winced and sat up on the couch. He touched a hand to his bandaged chest, knowing mixed feelings that the pain was not blossoming again. Shifting a bit to swing his feet to the floor, he dropped his head to his hands with a small groan as a tiny wave of nausea washed over him.

A sudden black streak across his mind's eye startled him, and he felt his ice-blue eyes widen.

"Oh, Danny," exclaimed Botan's voice, causing him to look sharply up. "You're awake, I didn't…" She paused, finally noting his expression. "Is something wrong?"

"Out…"

"What?"

"_Out_, Botan," he wheezed, pushing shakily to his feet, both arms now folded around his middle. "You have to get out… He's coming…"

She gasped, "A-are you sure? Will he be very angry with you? Maybe I should stay-"

"No," he shook his head. "Go. I'll call for you."

"Danny…"

"Just _go_, Botan… _**Please**_."

Still looking unsure, she hurried along the hallway, opened a closet door, and was gone through a secret portal to the spirit realm. The door clicked shut behind her.

Danny groaned again, fighting another wave of nausea, and caught a hand to an arm of the couch to keep himself steady. The pain in his chest pulsed threateningly, and he clenched his teeth together to keep from crying out. His eyes burned, his breathing hitched, and sweat was beginning to bead his brow.

After a long minute, his mind's eye was invaded by a second streak of black.

He painstakingly uncurled his other arm from around his stomach and stretched his hand toward his front door. A transparent green square poured itself over the bit of wax paper taped there, sealing the ward's power and breaking the circle of security he had so firmly planted within his home.

"Here I am," he whispered, hoarsely. "I'm not running…"

The words were barely out of his mouth before his front door slammed open. A blurred shadow entered, gripped the door so that the wood splintered, and then slammed the door shut again. Danny's shield over the demon ward wavered, but held.

Because he had shattered his best lamp, and because it was not yet late enough to turn on the overhead lights, Danny had only the dull afternoon sunlight streaming in through his still-warded windows by which to identify his visitor.

"Hiei…"

The fire demon came silently forth, each step slow and calculated, until at last only an arm's length separated them. Fierce red eyes tilted only slightly up to compensate for the three inches in height difference, and Hiei's mouth was set in a frown.

"Phantom," he returned, and the tone in his voice was thick with displeasure.

Curling both arms around his stomach once more, Danny stepped back and virtually collapsed onto his couch. Clenching his teeth harder, forbidding the urge to voice his pain, he sucked in a long hissing breath and lifted his own eyes to meet the other's gaze.

Hiei's expression changed. His frown grew less determined, his eyes were questioning. Behind its ward his third eye was faintly glowing. Then the glow was gone, and his fiery red glare was disbelieving. "Phant-"

"It's Danny," he quietly corrected. "Just once, Hiei. Let me hear you say my name."

The koorime grew very still for a long moment. When at last he moved, it was to step forward, closing the small gap until he stood directly before the boy. He held the other's gaze as he lifted one knee up onto the couch, nudging it between the boy's thighs. In one smooth, fluid movement he pushed up and straddled Danny's leg, hands firmly cradling the boy's jaw. He lightly swept over the boy's lips with his own, then again, before finally trapping them against his own in a firmer, quietly insisting kiss.

When he let the human break for air, he nipped at the boy's lower lip. "Danny," he breathed, and felt the boy shiver beneath him. "Danny, Danny…"


	4. Chapter 3 -- Not Running

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Chapter Three - Not Running**

"Damn it, now _I'm_ gettin' worried."

Kurama looked up from a magazine he had been browsing to calm his own nerves, a small reluctant smile curling his lips as he watched Yusuke make another lap around the living room. _Yes_, he confirmed his earlier thought. _Adorable._ "More than ten minutes have passed, Yusuke. I believe it's safe to assume that the worst is over."

"That's just it," the dark youth muttered, pausing long enough to glance yet again at his still-vacated balcony. "He could've killed the kid by now, and we wouldn't know it."

The redhead refused to let himself believe that of their old comrade. "I'll have to argue that point. Alive, Fenton barely contains his power; if even that tremulous control should suddenly vanish, all that power would be released in an explosion of energy that you and I would never have been able to misunderstand."

Sighing Yusuke at last plopped down on the couch. "I guess. But I just… _really_ wish I knew what was goin' on with Hiei." He looked up, "He's a telepath, right? Can't you get his attention?"

"It would appear I already have." Kurama shook his head, "I know you did not miss his expression, Yusuke. Not exactly an invitation to pry."

"Fine," he groused. "But he'd better have a _damned_ good explanation when he comes back."

~o~

Hiei straightened away, tugging his dark coat off and dropping it to the floor. "Seal the door," he commanded, unknotting the dark red sash from around his waist and tossing aside his sword as well.

"But the wards," Danny protested, ignoring the bead of perspiration rolling down the side of his face toward the vee of his throat. "You'd be-"

"Trapped," he acknowledged, unafraid. More comfortable now in his dark pants and bruise-colored sleeveless tee, he lightly gripped Danny by the shoulders and pressed a chaste kiss upon the boy's brow. "Seal it."

Swallowing, Danny nodded and reached his hand behind the koorime. The transparent green shield slowly melted away, revealing the marked slip of wax paper behind it. The ward's power crackled as it connected with that of its neighbors.

Hiei cringed, the completed ring of protection now pressing in on his demonic senses. Shaking his head to clear it, he suppressed his energy and buried it away until he was little stronger than the merest human. He did not like to think of himself so weak, but at least now the air in the room was breathable again.

"You okay?"

He nodded, shifting so that he was properly straddling the boy's lap. He reached for the hem of Danny's shirt, but a pair of hands quickly caught his wrists, stilling them. Hiei looked up. The boy's eyes had closed, as though he could no longer meet the demon's gaze, and the pain was more evident on his face. "Hiei," he eventually panted. "I don't… I don't have much longer…"

The fire demon paused for a long moment, but then he was moving again. Tugging his wrists free, he slipped his hands beneath the hem of Danny's shirt, sliding his hands up. The boy did not fight him, even raised both arms over his head. The shirt joined Hiei's coat and sword.

A surprised growl escaped Hiei's throat. Danny turned his face away, a small tremble passing through him.

Carefully, Hiei passed his fingers over the bandages wrapping the boy's torso. They were a powerful ward, vastly unlike those that embraced Hiei's own right arm, and over the center of Danny's chest they were marked with runes of the spirit realm, runes which translated into an attempt to withhold far more than the boy's energy. Hiei sucked in a hissing breath, but his voice was gruffly gentle when he demanded, "How long?"

"Days," the boy reluctantly admitted. "A week, if I can keep it together."

Another low growl passed through clenched teeth.

The boy caught his wrist again, looking at him with a hint of embarrassment as he softly pleaded, "Hiei? Don't think less of me, but… I'm afraid…"

Ignoring the sudden tightening in his chest, the fire demon shifted back and dropped his feet to the floor. Straightening away, Hiei silently clasped the wrist of the hand gripping his. With very little effort he fed a bit of his energy forth. Danny's ice-blue eyes widened as he felt it absorb into his own body. When Hiei tugged him to his feet, Danny wavered but stood firm.

Hiei released the boy's hand. Retrieving his sword from the floor, he turned and offered it to the boy. "This contains a drop of my energy as well," he explained, waiting until Danny had taken it in both hands before letting go. "A means of escape if I am too heavily taxed or find myself otherwise lacking. It should be enough to last you until I return."

Turning away, he plucked his coat from the floor and tugged it on. He spared one more glance over his shoulder. "Let me out. And then seal the door behind me."

Danny nodded and stretched his hand forth. As before, a transparent green square poured over the symbol warding the door, cutting off its power from its neighbors' and interrupting their flow of protection. Hiei exited the house, pausing only long enough to sense the ward being freed yet again before speeding off toward his destination.

~o~

A streak of black flashed in Kurama's mind, fringed with the dull red of suppressed desperation. The message in and of itself caused his skull to throb. It had taken him so by surprise that the glass of water he had poured for himself slipped from his hand, crashing on the kitchen floor. In almost the same instant, he heard Yusuke spit out a profound profanity.

Kurama quickly stepped over the shattered glass and raced into the living room. Yusuke had stumbled back against the wall, his hand clutching his head as though suffering from a severe migraine. Or a hangover. Dark brown eyes lifted up to meet emerald green, and both demons turned to the balcony just as Hiei appeared on the railing.

"With me," the koorime commanded. "Now." Then he was gone again, before either could ask what had happened.

Kurama exchanged a puzzled look with Yusuke, who rubbed at the base of his skull. "Did he have to shout?" The dark youth complained in reference to the message that had been delivered prior to the fire demon's appearance. "And how the hell are we supposed to keep up with him without being spotted?"

"We'll stay on the rooftops and use the sun to shield us," Kurama reminded, already stepping out onto the balcony.

Swearing again, Yusuke took his cue and leapt after him onto the fire escape of a neighboring apartment building. Kurama led up the ladder to the rooftop, where they promptly took up the chase. Both had already guessed where Hiei was leading them, and it was with little surprise that they found him waiting for him outside Fenton's home.

Kurama leapt down onto the stone walk, Yusuke a half-second behind him, and the redhead gave his old partner a curious look.

The fire demon ignored him completely, turning toward the door. All three felt when the foreign energy guarding the door vanished; Hiei opened the door and walked in. Kurama exchanged another look with Yusuke, and they followed. Hiei immediately closed the door; Yusuke caught a glimpse of something green, before it melted away and revealed a wax paper ward.

A strange and powerful ring of protection pressed in against their combined demonic energies from all sides. Kurama flinched with surprise, and Yusuke muttered an oath.

"H-Hiei…"

They turned. Daniel Fenton was standing in the middle of his living room, Hiei's sheathed sword held tight against his chest in both hands. He was barefoot and missing a shirt, and his entire torso was wrapped in cloth bandages that had been marked with unintelligible runes. As for himself, Fenton seemed a bit unsteady, almost dead on his feet. Even as they watched, the boy's icy blue eyes rolled back, and his knees buckled.

Hiei was there in an instant, catching the boy before he could collapse to the floor. Easily taking him up in his arms, the fire demon turned and placed the boy on the couch with more care than Kurama would ever have expected.

The redhead cautiously stepped closer, and Yusuke was close on his heels. Daniel Fenton looked sickly pale, and his dark hair was plastered to his head with perspiration that was still streaming down the sides of his face and even beading the base of his throat.

"Feed him your energy," Hiei gruffly requested, touching his hand to the bandages embracing the boy's torso.

Kurama stared, but something in his old friend's expression compelled him to comply. Sighing, he touched his own hand to Fenton's shoulder.

Yusuke hesitantly hovered his hand over the boy's arm, "Should I-?"

"Yes," Hiei growled. "Please."

The moment Yusuke's hand settled, the fire demon let his aura flare. Kurama and Yusuke followed suit, and together they let their energies trickle from their palms into Fenton's unconscious form.

Long minutes passed, as the three demons waited in silence for the boy to come around. Yusuke fidgeted. Kurama checked the boy's pulse. Hiei remained absolutely still, as though he had all the patience in the world; his fiery gaze never wavered from the boy's unresponsive face.

"Hiei," Kurama eventually whispered. "What's going on?"

Before the koorime could answer, the marks on the bandages wrapping the boy's torso began to glow a dark red. Fenton shifted a tiny bit - Hiei's eyes locked on that miniscule movement and would not look away. The markings glowed brighter, turning almost white, before finally dimming and returning to normal.

"What was _that_ about?" Yusuke hissed as they simultaneously cut the flow of their energies.

With a small groan, Fenton blinked his eyes open. He did not seem too surprised to find them all standing around him. Passing his icy blue gaze over each of them as they in turn removed their hands from him, he finally settled on Hiei. "I-I think I was wrong before… I can feel it…"

"Not a week?" Hiei verified. Both Kurama and Yusuke stared at the subtle alarm in the fire demon's tone.

The boy shook his head. "Hours… I c-can't hold it back anymore…"

"Hold what back?" Kurama gently asked. A sudden disturbing thought came to him, one he tried to dispel. "Are you dying?"

Yusuke swore.

Fenton started to shake his head in another negative, but then he flinched and arched his back with a small cry. Hiei reached with one hand but, with reflexes that left the other two demons staring, the boy caught his wrist and held him at bay. "No…" He lifted his other arm to point a shaking hand toward the hallway. "C-closet. Port- portal."

"A portal?" Wondered Kurama, "To where?"

But Hiei was already moving. He disappeared down the hallway, and when he returned moments later he was not alone.

"Botan?" Yusuke blurted.

Yet he was ignored. With a small gasp, the blue-haired ferry girl rushed around the couch and sank to her knees near Fenton's shoulder. "Danny!" She cried, "What happened?"

"I n-need your help, Botan," he rasped. "I can't stay here. I-I have to go back…"

"Already? But I thought-"

"Hey!" Yusuke interrupted. "Somebody mind fillin' us in?"

Botan finally acknowledged him, looking up to give him an annoyed glance. "Hello again to you too, Yusuke. I'm sorry if you think I'm being rude, but would you mind lending a hand? Danny needs to be brought into the spirit realm, and he doesn't look able to walk just now."

"He said he's not dying-"

"Yusuke," Kurama quietly cut in, drawing the dark youth's attention back to the boy in question.

Fenton was shivering as though with cold. As they watched, he wrapped his arms around his middle and curled in on his side. His eyes were squeezed shut, and he was gasping through clenched teeth as though to keep from crying out in pain.

Yusuke suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Right," he murmured, stepping forth.

But Hiei suddenly grabbed his arm, holding him back. The look he gave stopped Yusuke's protest before he could voice it, and the dark youth stepped away.

Hiei turned and leaned forward, carefully helping the boy to sit up. Fenton lifted unsteady arms, locking his wrists around the fire demon's neck, and Hiei wrapped one arm around the boy's shoulders and tucked the other under his knees. He straightened, lifting Fenton up with him, and the boy rested his head against Hiei's shoulder.

Yusuke moved further out of the way as Hiei rounded the couch and started down the hallway; Kurama quietly stared after his old comrade, marveling at Fenton's easy trust of the koorime.

Botan sprinted ahead and opened the closet door.

~o~

"Where are we?"

"Spirit world," Botan answered Yusuke, kicking a pebble away.

Yusuke watched it fall over the ledge of the floating rock they all now stood upon, and he leaned out a bit to watch it slow to a crawl in midair and then drift off to the side. Shaking his head, he cast his gaze upward, where several more rocks were hovering far overhead. Like the one they had claimed, there were no chains or such holding them aloft. Even stranger, the skies were dark green, and endless, with no horizon in sight.

"_This_ is spirit world?" Yusuke demanded, "This isn't how _I_ remember it…"

Botan idly waved her arm. "How _you_ remember it is about two thousand miles and a wormhole that way. _This_ is one of our sub-levels, one of the voids of unrest that the humans like to refer to as 'limbo'."

Kurama, who had been helping Hiei to make Fenton as comfortable on the surface of the rock as possible, looked up now at the reference. "Limbo? But isn't that one of the levels of eternal punishment? Specifically, the one in which a soul is rendered immobile and silent while suffering endless flows of pain for a thousand years?"

"Yes, of course. But humans tend to have their own names for the things they don't fully understand. As a matter of fact," she added, sinking to her knees near Fenton's side, "Danny's own parents have dubbed this specific realm as the 'Ghost Zone'."

Kurama and Yusuke both looked down. Daniel Fenton lay on his back, gasping, face and body rigid with pain. Hiei was kneeling by his other side, one hand pressed flat against the boy's bandaged torso and feeding him energy, while the other was gripped tightly within the boy's palm.

~o~

Hours passed.

Yusuke sat with his arm resting atop an upraised knee, the other leg dangling over the ledge of their rock. Kurama remained standing some paces away, his emerald green eyes still patiently observing their odd surroundings. Botan had drawn both her legs up, and now was quietly waiting with her chin on her knees.

Hiei had not ceased feeding his energy into Danny. Little by little he drew upon more and spent it forth. He was feeling now as he had in the boy's home, when in the midst of those demon wards. He would need a day of rest to recover the amount of energy he had given away. But, for once, he did not mind sacrificing so much of himself.

He knew he could not stop what was about to happen. He had seen into the boy with his Jagan. There was no way around it, he knew this. There was no fighting it. Yet he did not know what else to do. At the very least, his energy seemed to help Danny to remain as comfortable as possible, despite that the boy was in obvious pain.

Danny's hand squeezed around his fingers, distracting him, and Hiei shifted his gaze. Danny's face was still sickly pale and clammy with unshed perspiration, and there were now dark circles under his eyes. Hiei knew without needing to be told that the time had come. Yet the boy offered a small smile, as though it was nothing at all, and requested, "C-can I… ask you to d-do something for me…?"

Hearing the boy's rasping voice, Yusuke and Kurama turned around, and Botan lifted her head.

Hiei silently nodded.

"I don't… w-want them to watch…" Danny cast a glance toward one of the rock formations floating higher up in the strange green skies and then back again to unsteadily meet the fire demon's garnet red gaze. "U-up there… Will you t-take me…?"

Ignoring their companions' alarmed murmurs, the koorime held Danny's gaze as he answered, "Moving you even slightly would increase the pain."

Danny said nothing to that, refusing to look away.

Clenching his jaw, Hiei very carefully took up the boy in his arms and straightened to his feet. Danny winced with each movement but did not cry out, and he barely flinched at all as Hiei leapt toward the nearest floating rock formation.

"Hey!"

The fire demon turned around to peer down over the ledge, feeling Danny's wrists lock behind his neck to keep himself still. Yusuke had raced across the surface of their rock, staring up at them in a silent demand for answers.

"Wait there," Hiei warned.

The dark youth shifted into a subtle crouch, looking ready to chase after them, but Kurama quickly held him back and shook his head. Botan never moved from where she sat, her glistening violet gaze staring up at them in grieving acceptance.

Turning away, Hiei leapt from one stone platform to another, higher and higher, until he could only see their companions with the power of his Jagan. With extreme care, he slowly set Danny down and helped him to lie back.

Danny turned his ice-blue eyes to the fire demon, at last letting show the stark fear he had somehow hidden so well from their companions. "Stay…?"

Hiei was quiet for a moment, but then responded to that request with one of his own. "Tell me why?"

Even exhausted and riddled with pain, the boy had no trouble following what he meant. "Because I-I was… in the w-way…"

His fiery eyes narrowed, and he felt his chest tighten.

Danny's mouth tugged in a slow smirk, a smile that hid a deeper pain that had nothing to do with the present. "I d-don't… regret what w-we did…"

"Don't you?"

"No," the boy firmly swore. "B-but I could tell… You d-didn't need me…"

"Did my opinion count for nothing?" Hiei gruffly demanded, a low growl coloring his tone. "What of the promises I made you? You _knew_ what it took for me to promise them."

Danny turned his head away, but not before Hiei glimpsed the telltale glimmer in those ice-blue eyes that revealed how hard his words had struck the boy. His every instinct urging him to make amends while he could, he instead fisted his hands and waited. Eventually, Danny took a slow breath and whispered, "I knew… I still d-dream about it, but… I-I couldn't do that t-to you…"

Swallowing another sigh, he rolled his head and lifted his gaze to quietly search Hiei's face. "I-I'm sorry… Don't l-leave…"

The boy was still convinced he would leave? As if he _could_ leave… With another low growl, Hiei cupped the side of the boy's jaw and bent down to capture those lips against his own. Danny gave a soft whimper, and he swallowed it into him, passing his tongue forth to taste the slick caverns of the boy's mouth. He felt the boy's hand fist around the front of his coat, and then Danny's tongue was playing against his own with more fervor than Hiei would have expected, due to the boy's rapidly dwindling strength.

But then the fist gripping his coat slackened and fell away. Danny's kisses slowed and then ceased altogether. A quiet sigh blew against the fire demon's lips. The tightness blossomed within his chest, and Hiei straightened away.

Danny's eyes had closed again, and his face had lost its remaining color. He was no longer trembling. His chest did not rise and fall with his uneven breath.

Despite the pain, despite his fear, Daniel Fenton looked suddenly peaceful. As though their very recent exchange had somehow settled something for the boy once and for all. And Hiei, gazing down at the unmoving human, felt his eyes burn as he shed a single tear. It rolled down his cheek, hardening into a precious gem as it fell into his waiting palm. He closed his fist around it, straightening to his feet and backing away.

"I'll stay," he vowed, only partially shielding his eyes as the body before him suddenly lit with a bright white glow. "I'm not running."


	5. Chapter 4 -- Far Behind Him

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Chapter Four - Far Behind Him**

Yusuke and Kurama, who had not turned their eyes away from the faraway rock their comrade had eventually chosen, now stared at the explosion of white light. Hearing a sudden choked cry, they turned to discover Botan quietly weeping into her hands. The two demons exchanged a startled glance.

"Not dying," Kurama softly murmured, as though to reassure them both with the reminder.

Yusuke swallowed, "Right…"

They looked again toward that highest rock.

~o~

The glow dimmed, shrinking in on itself until only a steadily pulsing film of its light coated the boy's body. Hiei pocketed his tear gem, quickly coming forth to tear at the bandages wrapping Danny's torso. Their blood-like runes flashed in protest, but then they faded and the bandages ripped away with little effort. The film of glowing energy burst forth once again, as though freed at last, and its power threw Hiei off his feet.

He skidded back across the surface of the stone platform; he twisted around and drove the heel of his boot into the stone to break the momentum before he reached the ledge. Rolling to his hands and knees, he pushed to his feet, the tightness in his chest slowly loosening its grip as he stared at the spectacle before him.

Brightly luminescent green eyes gazed steadily back at him. Their owner was a white-haired youth with translucent pale skin, wearing a black jumpsuit that clung to him like a second skin which had been marked on its chest with a single white logo. His aura swirled around him like white flames, a small clue of the vast power that was now firmly under his control, even as it absorbed once more beneath his skin where it belonged.

The pale youth looked suddenly uncertain, gripping his own arm, his glowing green eyes glancing down and away.

But Hiei wanted none of that. Closing the distance between them, he grabbed the boy's wrist in his hand. Lifting it up, he held that glowing gaze and passed the tip of his tongue over the boy's gloved palm. The pale youth's eyes widened, and he sucked in a hiss of breath. Dropping the hand, Hiei caught the back of the boy's neck and jerked him closer, capturing that mouth to his own with barely-checked fervor.

When he pulled away, his fiery red eyes glinted as they searched those of glowing green. "Still afraid?"

The white-haired youth stared back at him for a long minute. But then that mouth tugged back in a slow and sultry smirk as it had not done for far too long. The boy replied, "After a kiss like _that_?"

~o~

Yusuke quickly tapped Kurama's shoulder, though the redhead had seen it too. A blur of black, leaping down from rock to rock, coming their way.

Kurama's eyes narrowed. "What's that with him?"

Following effortlessly at the black blur's side was a streak of white. And as Hiei neared, so did the pale shadow, until it became suddenly discernable as a white-haired youth that looked both strange and familiar.

"Danny!" Botan cried, racing forth to throw herself into the boy's embrace as he landed in their midst.

The pale youth caught her easily in her arms. "I'm sorry for worrying you, Botan," he whispered, his voice now strengthened by a subtle echo. He glanced up, his brightly luminescent green eyes shifting from Kurama to Yusuke; he added, "And for getting the both of us in trouble…"

"Nonsense," spoke another's voice, causing all to turn. The newcomer calmly stepped forth, his red and blue robes billowing out around him with every step. A gentle breeze played idly with his brown hair, and his eyes were a warm amber. Marking his brow was that all-too-familiar '**Jr**' symbol.

"I should've known you'd turn up," Yusuke muttered.

The young deity smiled around the blue pacifier in his mouth. "You're looking well, Yusuke. Enjoying your retirement, I expect."

"Yeah," he responded, his tone virtually dripping with dry sarcasm. He cocked his head toward Botan and the white-haired youth. "But you know how I can't resist falling in with the wrong crowd…"

"Koenma," Botan immediately started, leaving the pale youth's embrace to come to her employer's side. "I'm very sorry. Danny didn't mean to break the contract, we just-"

But Koenma only gave a soft chuckle. "I'm actually a little relieved it worked out this way."

Yusuke suddenly bit off a torrid profanity. "_Contract_? He's your new-?"

"Got it in one," the young lord nodded, a small smile still playing on his face. "Daniel Fenton, aka Danny Phantom, eighteen years old, with a remarkable history even you would be proud of."

Kurama studied the white-haired youth, finally able to pick out similarities behind the paleness and the glowing eyes. Daniel caught his glance, and his mouth tugged in a crooked smirk.

"The terms of his contract to me included that he was not to make contact with his predecessor," Koenma continued. He gave a small shrug, "Seeing as we'd given Yusuke - and, by association, the rest of you - enough trouble in the past, I'd added that condition as my own personal apology. But it seems my attempt was lost, after all."

"I'm sorry, sir," Daniel spoke up. "The councilor at my school grew concerned when my grades started slipping, and thought suggesting Kurama as my tutor would help."

The redhead blinked, "You know who I am?"

"_That's_ the part that gets you?" Yusuke hissed.

"I was briefed very thoroughly on my predecessor and his team," Daniel explained, "as part of my orientation."

"But what are you?" Kurama wondered. "Minutes ago, your spirit energy was fluctuating so erratically that we began to fear for your life. Now…"

"Now we sense nothing human about you," Yusuke ended. "And I'm almost willing to bet my retirement that you're no demon."

Hiei, who through all of this had been standing silently in the background, reminded everyone of his presence as he revealed, "He's an apparition. In the purest sense of the word."

"I'm a ghost hybrid," the pale youth clarified. "My parents are scientists; they study ghosts and even try to hunt them. Four years ago, they were working on a portal to see into the other side - into _here_, the Ghost Zone - and I was a little too close when it malfunctioned."

"You could say the accident jumpstarted his spiritual energy," Koenma put in. "From that day on, he'd begun to accumulate extraordinary abilities unlike anything I'd given Yusuke or Sensui."

Daniel nodded, "But irony has a twisted sense of humor. About eight months ago, the ectoplasmic cells in my body had started to multiply like crazy. And they had an appetite. I was losing red blood cells faster than I could reproduce them; I was in and out of the hospital… I guess you could say I wasn't all that surprised when Koenma finally decided to pay me a visit."

Kurama at last found a missing piece to his puzzle. "Your energy wasn't trying to escape. It was… eating away at your humanity."

"Made it hard to concentrate on my schoolwork," the pale youth confirmed with a wry grin, "when just clinging to my human form left me shaking and weak and passing out without warning."

"I'd imagine."

"My father had been hearing rumors about 'Danny Phantom' and his illegal ghost hunting," Koenma continued the tale. "I'd actually been ordered to find and arrest him." Seeing their startled expressions, he explained, "Though Daniel's parents are the original ghost hunters, they really aren't very good at it. Most of the people they associate with believe their profession to be a crock. Therefore, they provide no danger in exposing the spirit realm to the masses. Daniel, on the other hand, is very skilled and as a result has been very successful.

"I took it upon myself to pay him a visit one evening while he was in the hospital. I'd had my father's orders, but I had read up on Daniel and believed his potential too great to be simply thrown away like that. So, disobedient child that I am, I went behind my father's back once again and proposed an option that would spare Daniel from such an injustice. He would become my new detective. In return, I would hide him from my father's eyes and protect him while his human self gave way to what you see before you."

"The demon wards," Kurama guessed.

"No," the young deity shook his head. "Those really were to protect his home from demons. In his ever-weakening state, he never would've been able to stand up to them. No, to shield him from my father, I used a blood ward."

The redhead blinked, "Such an archaic ritual…"

"But effective," Koenma pointed out. "It seemed only fitting, as it was his human blood that was under attack. I myself placed the seal over his heart."

"But he's not human anymore," Yusuke quickly protested.

"Which would render the seal obsolete," Kurama agreed.

Koenma nodded, pleased as always that he had once chosen so quick-minded a team. "But, _because_ he's no longer human, my father's decree against him is also negated. As a pure apparition, and as my detective, Danny Phantom is under my solid protection from the Spirit King."

~o~

Koenma and Botan left for the castle some time later, both declaring that the hour was late, despite that the strange green skies had not changed since they'd all arrived.

Yusuke, who had been intrigued by Koenma's talk of Phantom's _extraordinary abilities_, was now encouraging the pale youth to test them against his own. His first impulse had been to cheat, of course, perhaps thinking he might take the boy by surprise. But Daniel had rendered Yusuke's shotgun useless, throwing up a glowing green bubble around himself that had seemed to absorb the spray of spirit bullets. And Yusuke's powered-up spirit gun had met with a translucent green square that had shielded Daniel from the frontal assault.

Yusuke had then given up on using spirit attacks, and had simply surrendered to the more physical method. In a casual skirmish that put everyone in mind of the Dark Tournament and the wind master Jin, Yusuke began chasing after Daniel - who easily accepted the challenge and retaliated, even while keeping his flying about to a minimum.

It was something altogether to realize that the pale youth could so effortlessly hold his own against his predecessor.

Sitting out of the way and watching as the two took their contest from one floating surface to another, Kurama glanced over to Hiei, who had fallen very quiet, even for himself. The fire demon was gazing down at something in his hand, something that Kurama could not clearly see but which glinted with the false light given by the strange skies above.

"What is it?" Kurama politely wondered.

"A tear gem," the koorime answered as softly.

"Yukina's?" It would have been no surprise that Hiei had somehow gotten his hands on one of his sister's precious tears.

But Hiei shook his head. "Mine."

Kurama arched a curious eyebrow; "Really?" He shifted closer, knowing that he was one of perhaps very few from which the fire demon would not hide such a thing.

Hiei's spine stiffened for a moment, but he remained where he was. With only the barest hesitation, he spread his fingers wider. Nestled on his bandaged palm was a small crystal sphere, perfectly shaped, and Kurama stared at the purity of its icy blue color.

"Hiei," the redhead gasped, lifting his eyes to stare at his friend. When the fire demon would offer no response, Kurama swiftly tried to piece together this new puzzle.

For whom would Hiei had been so moved to shed such a gem? Someone he cared for, perhaps. Someone he would protect or, failing that, avenge. The thought of vengeance brought to mind Mukuro, but she was immediately dismissed. Hiei had been upset over her passing, hard-pressed as the koorime was to admit it, but they had been nothing more than mere kindred spirits. Which left only the theory of protection…

And Kurama's dark green eyes widened as his mind fit together a series of very recent pieces. "Daniel," he breathed.

Hiei's spine stiffened again, and Kurama could hear the fire demon suck in an almost inaudible breath.

"So that's it," the redhead nodded, though inwardly he was marveling that his guess had been correct. "Your reaction when you'd learned who it was inhabiting the house your Jagan couldn't penetrate. The urgency of your aura when you commanded Yusuke and myself to follow you back to Daniel's home. How very easily he seems to trust you…"

"Enough." The hissed demand sounded very much like a request.

Kurama took pity on his old comrade. "Hiei… How?"

The fire demon seemed reluctant to answer. But then, with a small sigh, he opened his hand to look again at the precious gem in his palm.

~o~

_(Ten months ago…)_

_Hiei leapt from tree to tree, using the routine patrol as an excuse to get out of the lair. Mukuro was currently retraining her troops, and Hiei for one felt such an endeavor unworthy of his time. Having heard reports of mysterious activity near the borders of Mukuro's territory, he was now speeding off in that direction._

_He was entering sections of the forest that had been abandoned and uninhabited for three centuries, but he would not turn back. He had never backed down from a challenge, and he was bored anyway._

_Let whatever was hiding away here challenge him._

_Yet even as he scoffed at the idea, his senses were suddenly bombarded by spirit energy of a level he had only rarely encountered. The very next instant, a body slammed into his while he was in mid-leap and sent him crashing through a handful of branches before he collided with the ground below._

_Biting back a painful groan, he blinked open his eyes to find a pale anomaly lying unconscious across his chest. Even as he watched, a flash of white light enveloped the body atop his, and when it faded a dark-haired human had taken the pale entity's place._

"_Now, isn't that sweet," smugly commented a deep voice. Hiei looked up to find an eerie-looking caped figure hovering just over the canopy of the forest, directly over the hole Hiei had made through the braches in his fall._

_The creature's mouth twisted in an evil sneer, "Such a pretty picture, one I shall have to resurrect in oils and frame, but as for now I'm afraid I'll have to steal that boy back. You understand." And without waiting for Hiei's answer, the creature fired streams of purple light in an obvious attack._

_Hiei quickly caged the body atop him in his arms and rolled, and half a second later loosed earth sprayed up in a small explosion in the very spot he had been. He ducked his head, shielding himself and the unconscious human from flying dirt clods, though he felt a tiny prick as something struck the back of his neck. Anticipating another attack, he growled low in his throat, plucked the human up in his arms, and sped off in a blur of movement._

_Flashes of light and exploding branches followed in his wake, as his pursuer tried to keep up with him. Yet Hiei pushed out a burst of his demonic energy, and very shortly he left the caped creature far behind him._


	6. Chapter 5 -- His Revelation

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Chapter Five - His Revelation**

_Far beyond the borders of Mukuro's territory, deep within the wilds of no-man's land, Hiei pressed his back against an inner wall of the cave he had discovered, his fiery eyes narrowing as the human finally stirred._

_With a soft groan, the teenage boy lifted a hand to his head, wincing when his careful touch found a tender area just above his ear. Sighing, he dropped his hand to his side and braced his forearms to the rock he had been resting on, slowly pushing himself to a semi-upright position. But then he gave a sharp gasp, and his eyes flew open. His gaze darted this way and that, and he even turned his head to search around him, but it seemed the cave's interior was too dark for his human senses._

_He lifted his hand again, and this time his fist ignited with strange green smoke. "Who's there?" He quietly demanded, his young voice unusually steady though he obviously felt threatened._

_The fire demon kept his distance. "My name is Hiei."_

_The human's head swiftly jerked in his direction, those eyes still wildly searching. And it was then that Hiei glimpsed the haze of grey clouding those wide ice-blue orbs. "Do you work for Plasmeus?" The boy - for he was little more than that - cautiously wondered._

"_The one with the cape? No."_

"_You're not going to attack me?"_

"_If that had been my intention," Hiei hissed, "I wouldn't have waited for you to regain consciousness."_

"_I guess," the boy accepted, thoughtful. The strange smoke around his fist dissipated, and he carefully brushed the fingers of both hands against the lashes of his eyes, confirming that they were indeed open. He gave an almost unsurprised sigh, "I must've hit my head harder than I thought. Where are we?"_

"_Very far from where you'd fallen."_

"_So I have a while before Plasmeus finds me again?"_

"_At least."_

_The boy turned his head once more toward Hiei's voice. "Something about you feels strange. You're not human, are you?"_

_The koorime narrowed his eyes, "You so quickly jump to that conclusion?"_

"_Didn't you see the guy that hit me?" The boy returned without missing a beat. "There wasn't much human left in __**him**__. So, what are you? I can feel you from here, but I'm willing to bet you're not a ghost…"_

"_An apparition? No, I'm not."_

_The boy paused, and Hiei could practically see the wheels turning in the dark-haired youth's head. "I remember a forest, so I'm not in the Ghost Zone anymore. But the air, even in here, gives me a headache… So, I'm either at a very high altitude even __**I'd**__ never reached before… Or I've stumbled into __**another**__ realm separate from the human world."_

_Hiei only grudgingly admitted to himself how the boy's swift logic impressed him. "I'm a demon. And you're in a realm where humans such as you are a very popular dish to the more savage of my kind."_

_The boy surprised him again by responding to his warning with a sudden chuckle. "I doubt I'd taste very good, even if they were starving. I'm a ghost-hybrid, and I'm pretty sure that messes with the flavor."_

_Another wave of foreign heat rolled within his insides then, and though Hiei clenched his teeth, a quiet growl managed to slip through._

_The boy heard it; "You okay? Don't tell me Plasmeus got you, too?"_

_Though he hated the weakness in doing so, he hissed, "I suspect so."_

_In slow, careful movements, the boy shifted off his rock and straightened to his feet. He lifted one hand slightly up to feel the air before him, his feet feeling at the cavern floor as he inched forward._

_Hiei immediately pressed his back again to the wall, his eyes tracking the young human's careful progress. Though he did not feel particularly threatened by the boy, despite his quick mind and strange aura, Hiei's inexplicably racing pulse made him feel unusually unbalanced. He silently scowled at himself; he was a demon who preferred to always be in control, and it annoyed him that he did not feel so at that moment._

_When there were but a few paces between them, the boy paused and looked momentarily unsure._

"_Here," Hiei growled._

_The uncertainty fled the boy's face, and he altered his path slightly to the left as he continued forth. "I feel ridiculous," he muttered under his breath. "If this blindness is more than temporary, I swear I won't just get back at Plasmeus this time. I'll kill him."_

"_You've had dealings with him before?"_

_The boy's hand brushed against the front of Hiei's shirt and he fisted it, pulling himself confidently closer. Hiei drew in a hard breath through clenched teeth, the physical contact somehow scorching the air as he inhaled._

"_Sorry," the boy murmured. "Did he do something to your eyes, too? That why I surprised you?"_

"_No," he hissed. "I see you."_

"_Then what'd he do to you?"_

_He forced himself to focus, to think back. "My neck…"_

_The words had barely passed his lips before the boy slid his other hand up and felt around at the base of Hiei's throat. Hiei froze, fiery eyes narrowing again. The boy's fingers brushed up and around Hiei's neck, but then paused. His mouth turned down in a small frown. "There's something here," he whispered, his warm breath passing over Hiei's cheek and causing the fire demon to draw in a sharp breath of his own. "Feels like ectoplasm…" Without another word, he lifted up his other hand to that side of Hiei's neck and cupped both palms over the abnormality._

_Hiei glimpsed a flash of green out of the corner of his eye, but before he could turn his head to investigate he felt a shocking cold seep into his flesh. He grunted in surprise at the sensation, swiftly catching one of the boy's wrists in his hand. The boy winced but did not pull away, his temporarily blinded eyes turning to unerringly meet his glare. "It's my fault you got involved in the first place. The least I can do is try to get rid of this for you."_

_Finding himself cornered by his own brand of straightforward logic, Hiei let go and tolerated the human's touch. The burning cold of the boy's power pricked and carved at his flesh, until at last it peeled away the eerie infection from his neck. Hiei let out a sharp growl at the sensation, his knees buckling, and he sank to the stone floor. The boy followed him down, dropping to his own knees before him, his ice-blue eyes worried as he searched for and found Hiei's shoulder. "Sorry, I didn't know it would zap you like that. You okay?"_

_The fire demon shook his head. "You should go. Get away from here…"_

"_Even if I could find my way out of here, I'm not leaving you like this."_

_Hiei glared at the dark-haired youth for a handful of seconds, this unusual being who possessed a sense of Kurama's calm intellect, some of Yusuke's direct brashness, and something else altogether that was completely his own. It was that nameless something left over that tugged at Hiei's reluctant curiosity, that made the koorime deem worthy of the effort to learn more._

_It could have been a side-effect of whatever poison had been injected into him through that __**thing**__ that had been on his neck. It could have been that mysterious quality behind the boy's temporarily hazed-over eyes that gently pulled at him like some long-forgotten sense of familiarity. Or it very possibly could have been both… But the next thing Hiei knew he had captured that boy's suddenly tempting lips with his own._

_The boy sucked in a sharp gasp, both hands coming up to catch the sides of Hiei's head in a death grip. Their fingers dug into his scalp, and he knew the boy would push him away. But then those hands relaxed their grip, and their fingers tunneled into his hair. And the boy was returning his kiss._

_Hiei knew it was wrong. Knew he should pull away before any true harm had been done. Instead, he shifted forward, gently forcing the boy to give way until he had fallen on his back with the fire demon leaning over him. Hiei finally released the boy's mouth, trailing his tongue along the boy's jaw and nibbling at the flesh of his throat. The boy's fingers still gripped his head, urging him on, and he could hear the boy's rasping breath hitch and quicken in response to his attention._

"_I warned you," he breathed in between love bites. "I'm warning you now. __**This**__ is what that thing is doing to me. Leave, while you still can."_

_He felt and heard the boy swallow a deep breath, and he lifted his head to find those ice-blue eyes staring blindly up toward the cavern ceiling. "No. You need something to vent this, uh… side-effect on, and I'm here anyway, so…"_

_Hiei growled low in his throat, "I didn't bring you here to be my sacrifice."_

"_Maybe not." And then the grey haze suddenly fled from those ice-blue orbs, and the boy blinked quickly then finally gazed upon his demon rescuer. His mouth quirked in a slow smirk. "But a sacrifice is what you got. So, come on. I'm not running. Are you?"_

_It was with that challenge, so brazenly given, that the last of Hiei's restraint fled him, and he trapped those sultry lips against his own once more._

~o~

"Hiei…" Kurama's tone was slightly disapproving, but sympathetic.

He did not bother to defend himself, silently staring down at the tear gem still cradled in his palm.

After a long minute, his red-haired companion let out a slow breath. "Very clearly, there is something you have yet to confess to me."

"Yes," he whispered. "I marked him…"

Kurama gasped, "Hiei-!"

He growled, fisting his hand around the gem, and he turned his head to give his oldest friend a fiery glare. "Toward the end, my Jagan opened and pierced his mind. I was so intoxicated by what it saw that I gave him my mark without a thought."

The redhead calmed with visible effort, his emerald eyes becoming even more sympathetic than before. "Oh, I… I'm sorry-"

"Don't be," he sharply cut him off. "I didn't regret it afterward, after my mind had cleared and become my own again. He was a human, and he was young, but through my Jagan I'd found in his spirit something I'd never thought to be missing. I promised to make him my mate, to give him a place by my side, even swearing to leave Mukuro and join him in the human world."

Soft amusement; "Such lengths?"

"For nearly three days, I believed he'd accepted. We stayed in that cave, while he recovered the rest of his energy and I waited to be certain there were no other side-effects from the thing that hit me. Then I began to lead him back to Mukuro's to introduce my new mate and to give my resignation."

"You were serious," Kurama whispered, now with quiet awe.

Hiei nodded. "We were perhaps one more day's journey from my goal, when he asked to rest for the night. I found I had enough patience to oblige him, though I'd begun to anticipate how very completely my life would change for him… But then he disappeared after I'd fallen asleep, masking his energy somehow so that even my Jagan could not sense him leaving me."

In the background, the distant sounds of Yusuke and Daniel's continuing scuffle barely penetrated the heavy silence that followed his revelation.


	7. Chapter 6 -- Mine Forever

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Chapter Six - Mine Forever**

Kurama finally, tentatively, broke the silence. "I understand now your reaction when you'd overheard me speak his name…"

"Returning to Mukuro was the only thing I could think to do," Hiei quietly continued his tale. "But I was numb. Distracted. I'd burn all my spare energy trying to find him again. After Mukuro had died, and I'd punished those who'd betrayed her, I felt only a sense of release that I could dedicate all of myself to my search. When I heard you speak his name…" He closed his eyes, clasping his other hand over the one fisting his tear gem and dropping his brow to his knuckles. "Kurama… I came alive again. I _had_ to find him."

The red-haired youko gave a soft smile to hear his old comrade confess such a notion aloud. "Hiei. What was it the Jagan revealed to you, all those months ago? What was it that enticed you to bond him to you so completely?"

The fire demon grew suddenly very quiet, and when Kurama looked he saw that Hiei's eyes were tightly shut in an expression of vulnerability that rendered the demon fox speechless with surprise and alarm. The next instant, Hiei had shot to his feet, turned away, and fled in a blur of movement.

~o~

Yusuke swiped the back of his hand across a bloody lip, smirking. About to spring for another attack, he paused. Daniel had automatically thrown up his shield, but he seemed distracted. The pale youth turned his luminescent green gaze away, his expression warping into one of guilt and worry. And then he was gone, flying off without a word.

Yusuke would have followed after him, but a hand to his shoulder rooted him where he stood. Looking over his shoulder, he found Kurama suddenly standing behind him. The older demon's eyes were filled with a secret sympathy, and he shook his head.

"He and Hiei have much to discuss," was all he offered in explanation.

~o~

Hiei leapt from one floating rock to another, with Danny following a short distance behind him. The pale youth could easily have caught up to him, but Danny could read the language of that body better than his own. Hiei was upset; more than upset, he was about to lose it. So Danny contented himself with trailing after the dark demon, keeping enough distance between them to assure that Hiei knew he would not pressure him to stop before he was ready.

When at last Hiei did decide to stop, they were a solid handful of miles from where they had begun. Danny automatically scanned their surroundings; they had ventured much closer to the core of the Ghost Zone, yet just far enough away to not attract any unfriendly attention.

Glad that they were alone, he flew down and touched his feet to the uneven surface that Hiei had chosen. He felt a quiet sense of déjà vu, and it did not take him long to realize why. When he had finally spared enough curiosity to take in his surroundings on that long-ago morning after, he had dedicated that cave's interior to memory. He had not wanted to forget the scene in which he had given so much of himself to a virtual stranger.

This particular floating rock looked much the same.

Hiei's back was turned, but as soon as Danny touched his shoulder, the demon spun around and jerked him close. Hiei's hand cupped the back of Danny's neck, silently urging him to lower his head those few inches until their mouths met in a searing kiss that immediately set fire within Danny's chest. Danny responded immediately, pulling himself closer within the strong circle of Hiei's arms, parting his lips to let in Hiei's seeking tongue. It was an automatic response, one he surrendered to willingly, even while in the back of his mind he knew something was wrong.

When Hiei finally released him, his fiery red eyes were hard and intense; his jaw was clenched as though with anger. Or anguish.

He gripped Danny's arms in a way that might have been painful, had the boy still been human. "You're mine," he spoke, a low possessive growl flavoring his voice. "I will not permit you to leave me again."

Some would have been unnerved. Others would have been indignant. A small handful might even have considered a restraining order.

Yet Danny felt his mouth tilt in a small smirk. He brushed a light kiss over Hiei's headband, directly where he knew the demon's third eye to be, causing Hiei to very subtly shiver at the contact. He lifted a hand - Hiei allowed it, releasing that arm though he kept a firm grip on the other - and he cupped the back of Hiei's head, tangling his fingers in those dark strands. "Believe it or not," he replied at last, "I've never _not_ been yours."

"You left," the demon hissed. Definitely angry.

"Yes," Danny gave a somber nod. "Because you were planning to give up everything for me. I didn't know much about your Mukuro, or your share in her power, but I knew I couldn't ask you to do that. Even if there was some way _I_ could have stayed with _you_… I hated the thought of letting my family and friends believe I'd abandoned them. I'm sorry, if that makes it sound like I chose them over you."

Hiei did not respond, but his jaw slowly unclenched, a sign that he was listening.

~o~

Danny carefully pried his other arm free from the fire demon's grasp, and he took Hiei by the shoulders, quietly leading him over to a jutted-out piece of the rocky surface. Sitting down, he lightly tugged at Hiei's hand until the demon gave in and silently straddled his lap. The pale youth idly ran the fingers of both hands through Hiei's hair for another few seconds then rested his palms on either side of the koorime's waist.

"Hiei," he sighed, a plea softly dimming those luminescent green eyes. "I didn't run away from you. But there wasn't room in your life for me, no matter what you promised, and I wasn't about to steal you away from that life to force you to try to find a place in mine."

Hiei shook his head, irritated at where he thought this was going, but the pale youth caught a patient hand to his jaw, stalling him.

"So I waited," Danny continued as though without interruption. "I admit that I couldn't begin to guess at the life expectancy of the average demon, but I did know something that gave me hope, in its own twisted way. Plasmeus was a ghost-hybrid, like me. He'd been at it much longer, though, and it was easy to see that the ectoplasm in his blood had virtually destroyed him, even _before_ he'd chased me into that forest. He had been careless about his powers for over three decades; the deterioration of his humanity had been accelerated like you wouldn't believe.

"Plasmeus had been older; he'd had his powers longer, and had been abusing them for just as long. I was more careful with my powers, but I was also younger. Basically still new to the ectoplasm in my blood. Not as immune. I couldn't guess how long it would take, but I knew that what had happened to him would eventually happen to me - and I was counting on it."

The anger finally fled from Hiei as he began to understand. "You used the time to prepare. You wanted to leave no loose ends."

"You have no idea how hard it was to convince my family that it was just a strong reaction to some random contagion, like the H1N1 influenza or something. I very nearly developed an eating disorder, forcing myself to throw up enough to get them to take me to the hospital so often."

"Why the hospital?" Hiei wondered, in spite of himself.

"Because I knew how to use my powers to fool their machines into thinking my heart gave out. Then, when the doctors rushed in to check on me, I'd stop breathing and still my heartbeat so that they'd be convinced and call my time of death."

But the koorime knew enough of human rituals to see the flaw in such a plan. "What of your funeral? Even a cremation would have required a corpse."

The pale youth looked momentarily uncomfortable, "I, uh… applied for early legal adult status, and then specified in my will that my body was to be entombed instead of burned or buried. After the funeral, my coffin and the tomb were to be sealed so that no one would bother to investigate until long after I'd disappeared."

Hiei felt a tightness in his chest, and this time he did not ignore it. "And then you would have come to me?"

Danny's mouth tugged in an apologetic smile. "Not right away, though I wanted to. I'd planned to hang out here in Ghost Zone, near the area that shared borders with your world. I would pop in now and then, try to catch the latest gossip. You'd told me that you and Mukuro were a shared power, remember? I knew if something, anything, had upset that power, word would spread." He paused, "I'm sorry that something ended up being that she was betrayed and murdered. I don't know what I was wishing to happen, but I didn't want that."

Though Kurama, his oldest and most trusted ally, had been the first to offer condolences for Mukuro's death, they were somehow easier to accept when coming from this pale boy who had never laid eyes on her. "Thank you," he murmured. He lifted his gaze, pinning those glowing green eyes with his of fiery red. "Koenma explained the changes in that plan of yours, but the end result is the same."

"I'd noticed," Danny smirked again. "We've established that I'm yours, that I'd always intended to return to you, and that there's nothing left to stand in our way." His smirk grew, "So? What's our next move?"

Hiei answered that in the best way he knew - physically.

Lurching forth, he caught the zipper of Danny's jumpsuit between his teeth, arching his flexible spine as he worked it down the center of the pale youth's torso. Danny proved as very sensitive as he had been so long ago; the boy sucked in a quiet hiss of breath at the feel of the zipper parting to reveal his alabaster torso. Hiei tongued the zipper apart, patiently searching until he found and latched onto a pale pebbled nub.

Danny let out a short cry, the fingers of both hands tangling into Hiei's hair and gripping his head, a silent plea for more. The dark demon nearly smirked in overdue triumph, and he lightly nipped at the tiny prize in his mouth, causing the pale boy to flinch and then tremble in instantaneous reaction.

In little time at all, Hiei had rid the boy and himself of their clothes, and they were stretched out along the flat surface of the floating rock. Hiei worshipped Danny's body with kisses and lovebites, reveling in the pale youth's hitching breaths and quiet whimpers as he trailed a path downward. He swirled his tongue within Danny's navel, and his young lover squirmed beneath him, breathing his name again and again - just in response to that singular, infinitesimal torture. Nipping his way lower, Hiei bypassed that part of Danny that seemed very wanting of his attention. Instead, he paused, lifting his head slightly away to gaze down at something he had begun to lose hope of ever setting his eyes upon again… That which had proclaimed long ago what Danny had only now confirmed.

His mark.

The last Hiei had seen it, it was still slowly bleeding and the flesh around it had been bruised blue and purple. He had taken more of his new mate's blood than he had intended and, though he had fed a bit of his energy to even the exchange, the mark's initial refusal to seal itself had nearly worried Hiei that he had done something wrong.

Now, though, he lowered his head again and lightly lapped his tongue over the pale and perfect flesh of his lover's upper left thigh, marveling that the only evidence was a bold maroon scar where his teeth had sunk in so many months ago. Danny sucked in a hiss of breath, fingers reaching down to weave into Hiei's hair, demanding, pleading. He lifted his eyes to find that the pale youth was watching him with a hooded gaze, a haze of passion and need clouding those brightly luminescent green eyes.

"What's the matter," Danny challenged, albeit breathlessly. "The taste of me ruin your appetite?"

"Hardly," he scoffed, and to prove his point he did what he had done so long ago and swallowed the pale youth's shaft whole. Danny let out a sharp cry, gripping Hiei's head tighter, and the dark demon could hear him suck in hissing breaths through clenched teeth in an attempt to regain some control. Smirking around his mouthful, Hiei moved his head and destroyed any chance of that. He worked Danny slowly and thoroughly, enjoying the taste of him fully as much the pale youth was obviously enjoying the attention.

Danny's fingers clamped around his skull, and he knew his young lover was close. He lifted his head away, ignoring Danny's protests as he moved over him and claimed that sultry mouth once again, letting the pale youth taste of his own precum.

"Hiei," Danny moaned against his mouth. "Now. Please."

He frowned, reluctant concern pushing beyond the fire of his own hunger. "You're not ready," he growled as softly. "You need-"

"I need _you_," the boy insisted, bucking his hips up to meet the dark demon's pelvis with his own. He whimpered, "Please, Hiei. You know I can take it."

After another slight pause, Hiei clenched his jaw and nodded. He was unwilling and unable to deny his young lover anything at the moment. Having been apart so long, the dark demon doubted he would ever refuse to give the boy what he wanted. So he slowly eased Danny's legs around his waist and positioned himself.

The slight difference in height, something he never cared for but deemed unworthy to complain about, now proved itself advantageous as it had so many months ago. He lowered his head and savored the taste of Danny's collarbone, sucking and nipping and eliciting small tremors and whimpers from his young lover. When he felt the boy was thoroughly distracted, he swiftly bucked his hips and entered him in one thrust. Danny flinched, arcing his back with a soft grunt at the invasion - but the fingers gripping Hiei's shoulders, nails digging into his flesh for a moment and then easing up again, let him know that the pain was only brief and uncomfortable at best.

Despite that he wanted to pull back and drive himself in again, wanted very much to hear his pale lover scream his name, Hiei held himself in check and waited. His mouth and teeth still played at Danny's collarbone, and he tilted his head to tease at the boy's throat as well. When Danny bucked against him again, a silent plea, Hiei knew he had stretched enough and was ready. With another lovebite at the boy's shoulder, he began to move.

Danny met his thrusts with every enthusiasm. "More," he gasped. "Harder…"

Again, Hiei felt compelled to comply. The pale youth's every wish, he would fulfill. Growling low, he shifted the boy's legs up over his shoulders and increased his pace, the new angle helping him to penetrate deeper into his young lover. Danny moaned his approval, lowering his arms to his sides to anchor his torso while the rest of him was virtually bent double to receive Hiei's rough lovemaking.

Hiei moved faster, pushed harder, reveling in the sound of Danny's breath hitching with each thrust. His efforts rocked the both of them, setting a rhythm that sent his blood racing. He could smell the heat rolling off of his young lover as they moved. He knew Danny would not last much longer, and with the way the boy's muscles were pulling around him, Hiei very much doubted his own control at the moment.

"Touch yourself," he commanded with a ragged hiss. "Make yourself come."

The boy opened his luminescent eyes, their green color glowing suddenly more brightly, a sign that he was every bit as intoxicated as Hiei had predicted. He met Hiei's fiery gaze, swallowed another gasp of air, and lifted one hand to wrap his fingers around his own throbbing erection. He pumped his hand, and his body racked with small tremors in physical evidence that his senses were beginning to overload.

Hiei leaned back, hungrily observing the boy's obedience. It was enough to boil what was left of his blood, and he began to thrust even faster. "Yes," he growled. "That's it. Let me see what I do to you."

The boy bit a corner of his lip but held Hiei's gaze, apparently refusing to be the one to look away as his hand's movements increased. Hiei pounded harder, deeper, a low growl coating his every breath as he coaxed his young lover toward the end.

But then Danny's muscles clamped again around him, and the boy pleaded, "Come with me!" And any shred of control he might have convinced himself was still his dissolved in an instant. With one more fierce and scalding growl, he slammed himself deep into his young lover and gave in to his release. Danny shuddered around him, and with a soft moan he came as well, his seed washing up between them.

Fighting a sudden exhaustion born from a combination of feeding so much of his energy earlier and what they had just shared, Hiei clenched his teeth and carefully eased Danny's legs from his shoulders. Pulling away, he rolled them both together until the pale youth rested across his chest. Though the boy no longer had a pulse, let alone one that would race after their exertions, Hiei could feel his young lover's chest heave to fill its lungs with air it no longer needed.

Danny stretched an arm across Hiei's stomach in an absent embrace. "So," he wondered with a breathless chuckle. "That convince you I'm still yours? I mean, clearly, you're the dominant one in this relationship…"

The dark demon scoffed, remembering how readily he had obeyed his young lover's every whim. "Are you sure it's not the other way around?"

"What, that you're mine?" Danny lifted his head, the glow of his eyes no longer so feverish but alight with teasing disbelief. But then the boy gave a slow smirk, "I like that. One of the most powerful demons of the makai, mine forever…"


	8. Epilogue -- Mate

**Title:** If Not For You

**By:** Aina Song

**Fandom(s):** Yu Yu Hakusho/ Danny Phantom

**Genre:** Yaoi

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warning(s):** Language; Angst; Suffering; Death; Attempted NCS; Necrophilia (sort of… depending on how you look at it…)

**Pairing(s):** Surprise!

**Reviews:** Yes, please.

**Author's Note:** Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money.

**Teaser:** _"Like a mural, life is pieced stroke by stroke with the light and dark elements living together… One is never found without the other."_ - Thomas Kinkade

**Epilogue - Mate**

_(One week later…)_

Yusuke swore under his breath, shifting his back more comfortably against the wall of the building. "Don't know why I'm so nervous. Not like I'm the one in there."

Kurama offered a patient smile. "Perhaps it is because he is now one of us, the newest member of our odd little team. Talented as he is, one can't help but feel a bit protective for a time. Much like you were with Kuwabara."

Turning his head away, he crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't remind me…"

A gentle hand suddenly caught his jaw, and he followed its pull with a start to find the demon fox's emerald green eyes gazing down at him with a quiet intensity that somehow pierced him like a shock of electricity. "Personally," the red-haired youko murmured, "I don't understand how Keiko could've chosen someone so disproportioned and uncoordinated, over something so… delectable." He then lowered his head, passing his lips over Yusuke's in the briefest touch before claiming the dark youth's mouth in a truer kiss. He pulled away after just a moment, his smile softening at the slight haze that warred with the surprise still lingering in those dark brown eyes. "Don't let one misfortune close you off from the rest of the world, Yusuke," he huskily advised. "Not when the world has so much to offer."

The young Mazoku swallowed thickly but, with only the barest hesitation, nodded.

"Am I interrupting something?"

They turned. A young dark-haired teen was approaching them, a hint of mischief in his icy blue eyes.

Kurama discreetly stepped back, the epitome of politeness as he assured, "Nothing that can't be continued in due course. But tell us, how did it go?"

Daniel's mouth tugged in a slow smirk, and it was clear that he knew exactly what he had walked in on. "If anything Ukai says should be taken seriously, then I'll be the most missed prodigy that school will never know it had. And that's saying something, considering they still have the great Minamino to pick up my slack."

Kurama arched a slim red eyebrow. "You imply that, had you stayed, my studies would eventually have become second-best to your own?"

Yusuke snickered, finding the very idea ridiculous.

"Well, no," Daniel allowed, still smirking. "But it would've been a close enough competition to keep the rest of the student body on their toes." He cocked his head, mimicking Kurama's expression by arching a dark eyebrow of his own. "Why else would they have deemed their best student as the only candidate worthy to tutor me?"

The demon fox let a slow smile tug at his lips. "Touché." He lifted one arm level with his gaze, pushing back his sleeve to check his watch. "Exciting a challenge as you provide, Daniel, I'm afraid I'm expected elsewhere. Congratulations, of course. Excuse me."

Daniel watched him go, and then smirked at Yusuke. "So how long has that been going on?"

"That was the first time it happened, actually," the dark youth admitted. "Dunno what brought it on, but I've got a feeling I won't have to wait long to find out." He shrugged, shaking his head and changing the subject. "We gotta celebrate your new freedom. How long we got?"

"This human body's only temporary," Daniel reminded, laughing. "Koenma gave me until sunset, but I promised to meet Hiei with a few minutes to spare."

Yusuke grinned, "Plenty of time."

~o~

The door to the shop swung open, causing a small bell overhead to ring with welcome. An elderly man behind the main counter looked up, and his aged face came alive with a smile. "Ah, Mister Minamino."

The redhead gave the elderly man a patient smile as he approached the counter. "I apologize for my tardiness. Has my friend already come in to pick up the item?"

"Yes, actually," the man nodded, adjusting his spectacles as he checked his logbook. "Unusually quiet, that lad. Didn't strike me as the social type, but he was polite enough as he received his purchase."

"Do forgive him," the red-haired teen softly pleaded. "That one is the type whose trust must be earned, and not given. A combination of past and current circumstances have etched that lesson into him, and I care not to challenge him in his ways."

"Of course," the man nodded kindly, making a mental note show that other boy every kindness should he visit again. Finding the information he had recorded some days ago, he sighed. "Even minus the down payment you covered when last you were here, I'm afraid the tally is still somewhat substantial. It _was_ handcrafted, after all, and a rush order at that."

"I don't mind," the redhead smiled again. "The reason behind this favor is of great importance, and I'm quite pleased to have been volunteered."

~o~

Danny entered the house for the last time. It had been emptied over the course of the past few days, all of its furnishings anonymously donated to a local shelter. The demon wards had all been taken down, and the portal to the Ghost Zone had been removed from the hallway closet. Its interior was now spacious and would seem inviting to its future tenants, but Danny only gave a slow smile at how small it appeared to him at that moment.

A flicker of black blinded him for an instant, and something cool was looped over his head to settle around his neck. Danny blinked, his smile tugging into a welcome smirk to find Hiei standing before him. The demon's fiery red eyes met his gaze, a dark eyebrow quirked in teasing expectation.

Looking down, Danny stared at the slim silver chain dangling from the base of his neck which gleamed in the late sunlight streaming from the bare windows. Its pendant rested comfortably against his chest - a small silver dragon's claw, its talons gripping an ice-blue bauble which gave the illusion of emitting its own thin film of frost. Danny curiously touched it to find that it was indeed a bit chilled, and he lifted his eyes to stare at his demon lover just as the last of the sun's light faded and his human guise melted away to reveal the ivory paleness of his true form.

A brief saddened light flashed over Hiei's eyes, but was gone again as he calmly stepped closer. "I was born to an ice maiden," he quietly spoke. "Like those of her people, her tears hardened into gems both rare and valuable. Though the blood of my veins is dominated by that of my nameless father, whom I suspect was a fire demon like myself, I did inherit a few qualities from my mother." He lifted a hand, seizing the dragon's claw in his fingers as he revealed, "I myself shed this gem. My mate had used the last of his dwindling strength to promise his love to me in a kiss, and in the next instant his human shell had finally failed him. For one brief minute, he died. And I shed this tear - this one, singular gem that perfectly catches the color his eyes had been."

He lifted his gaze to Danny's permanently luminescent green eyes, which were now staring at him as though they might shed tears of their own. Letting the gem drop from his fingers, he moved his hand to instead snatch the back of his young lover's neck. "Kurama has a number of useful connections in this otherwise useless human city. He helped me acquire the aid of a jeweler, who crafted the gem into a pendant of my specifications. I was determined to bestow my newly resurrected mate with physical proof that I am his in every way. That a part of me mourns the loss of his human shell, as it was also the loss of a part of him as a whole. And that, should he accept me, I intend to spend every moment of his ethereal existence returning the love he had sacrificed the last instant of his human life to give me."

Danny stared, unblinking, for a long minute. When at last he recovered, his mouth tugged in a shadow of his usual smirk, and he fisted a hand around the front of Hiei's jacket, pulling him closer. "Before he answers, I hear your new mate wonders what convinced you to stake your claim on him in the first place."

"Been talking to Kurama, has he?"

A slim white eyebrow arched; "No, but now you've made him especially curious."

Hiei growled deep in his throat in mock annoyance, slipping his head cloth from around his brow. His Jagan eye cautiously blinked open, and he could feel its power hum in quiet curiosity at having been exposed. Hiei strictly reigned it in, slowly tugging at the back of Danny's neck until the pale youth's face was mere inches from his own. Though he did not fear damaging his young lover's mind - that risk had already been conquered long ago - he still hesitated for the very briefest moment before pinning Danny's eyes with his own and releasing just a tendril of the Jagan's power.

Danny sucked in a hiss of breath, the muscles in the back of his neck bunching together beneath Hiei's touch, but the boy did not jerk away. Together, they plunged into the pale youth's past, to a memory that the Jagan had etched forever into Hiei's mind.

~o~

_(An undetermined amount of time ago…)_

_Daniel Fenton glared weakly at Plasmeus, sucking in quick breaths through clenched teeth as he watched his enemy from across the clearing. The older hybrid was drawing closer, but slowly, tauntingly, as though he knew he had all the time in the world. Danny narrowed his eyes in self-loathing - he had lost too much energy already; he doubted he would survive another attack. What little energy he had left was currently shielding him in a half-bubble, and even that was flickering uncertainly._

_Plasmeus' eyes raked over him hungrily, and Danny cringed in disgust. He had long ago discovered just exactly why the man was still obsessed with him, even after Vlad Masters had finally given up pursuing Danny's mother. Not that anyone would believe such a thing of the "respectable" billionaire. No, he was all alone to fend off the older hybrid's unwarranted and __**unwanted**__ attention._

_Danny kept his eyes on his enemy, holding his ground as Plasmeus drew nearer, though in truth he was swiftly losing even the strength to stand. His human form was battered and bruised, and he could taste the blood of a cut lip. His arms were wrapped around his middle, cradling his stomach as it had suffered the worst blow. Yet he was not afraid, huddled there in that clearing, alone and virtually defenseless as his most persistent enemy took yet another step closer._

_No, he wasn't afraid. __**Far**__ from it… He was __**pissed**__._

_He was stronger now than Plasmeus - defending himself against the older hybrid so often had provided a crash course in upgrading his power and abilities. He __**knew**__ this. And yet here he was, the proverbial sitting duck, waiting for Plasmeus to stop taunting him and make his move._

_He barely finished that thought, when the older hybrid suddenly launched himself, breaking through Danny's tenuous shield and colliding with the boy with enough force to send them both to the ground. Danny spat out a breathless profanity, immediately struggling to free himself, but Plasmeus had already pinned his hands to either side of his head._

"_Now now, Daniel," the man warned in a sickeningly sweet murmur. "How many times must I say this before you finally understand: As the only two ghost hybrids in existence, we are only compatible with each other. In point of fact, dear Daniel, you were - essentially - made for me."_

_Danny paused in his struggling to spit in the man's eye._

_Plasmeus barely flinched, having received such a response from him more than one time in the past already. Instead, he lowered his head, nuzzling against the collar of Danny's shirt to wipe his face. Danny cursed again, kicking his heels into the dirt in an attempt to get enough leverage to push the man off of him. His struggles only seemed to amuse Plasmeus, who sneered triumphantly before lowering his head again, presumably to steal a kiss._

_Danny swung his head forward, hard, and was chillingly pleased to hear the otherwise stomach-churning crack that confirmed he had hit his target. Plasmeus jerked away and leapt to his feet, his silken façade gone at last as he cupped both hands to his bleeding nose. Danny used the distraction to his advantage, scuttling away from the older hybrid before pushing unsteadily to his own feet._

_He wrapped one arm again around his stomach, his other hand tightening into a fist at his side. He glared as the older hybrid tried to staunch his broken nose, and he could feel his eyes burn in that familiar way that let him know they must be glowing green again. A slow smirk tugged at his mouth…_

~o~

Hiei blinked, finally breaking contact with his pale lover's eyes. Danny sucked in another breath as the Jagan's spell was broken, and Hiei held him steady as the boy reasserted himself in the present. When he was certain his young mate's legs would not give out, he immediately let go and knotted his head cloth around his brow once more.

When finally Danny had recovered enough breath to speak, he gasped, "T-that was…"

"Yes," Hiei solemnly nodded. "One example of many depicting your martyred defiance in the face of adversity. In your heart, you are unwavering - and at the same time cautiously confident. Your very soul is that of a strong demon; I might once have thought it a pity you were born a human, had I not already fallen in love with that part of you as well." He lifted one hand to again gently cup the back of the pale youth's neck, "That particular example may not be remarkable in itself to you, but in that last instant when your eyes burned and you realized your energy was returning… The Jagan passed me through your heart's core again and again, until I was thoroughly awash in the defiant purity of your soul."

The pale youth looked somewhat abashed, "Hiei… I'm not always like that. I mean, you were there, last week - even after all my preparing, I was still afraid to die."

The dark demon patiently nodded, "I remember." He gently tugged the boy down, capturing Danny's mouth with his own in a slow, torturing kiss that ended with a tender lovebite at the boy's bottom lip. His fiery eyes shone fiercely as he pulled away; "But rational fear of the immediately inevitable is not cowardice. Even afraid, you never wavered in your plan. _That_ is who you are - Daniel Fenton, the Phantom… _Danny_. _You_ are who I am proud to have taken as my mate."

A slow smirk finally returned to his pale lover's lips. "I'm kinda proud of you, too." Then his expression turned thoughtful, "Though you have me a disadvantage…"

Hiei caught the hint and, because it came from his mate, did not feel angered or annoyed by the request. "Would you like me to share my memories with you?"

Luminescent green eyes widened just a fraction as Danny realized his request was not being thrown in his face as he had likely expected. "S-sure. I mean, if you wouldn't mind…"

Lightly grabbing the boy by the arm, Hiei led the boy to a corner of the room and sat him down on the floor. A single memory had subtly threatened Danny's sense of balance; if that was any indicator, then an entire lifetime of them was going to be an understandably bigger rush. Dropping to a crouch before his young lover, he lifted both hands to hover them to either side of the boy's head.

Danny gave a suddenly nervous smile, "Aren't you going to uncover your third eye again?"

"Heh," the dark demon smirked in return. "The Jagan only enhances my power. _This_, I can do on my own." And closing his eyes in mild concentration, he proceeded to fulfill the promise he had made to give everything of himself to his pale and perfect mate.

**The End**


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